Okay, I know you’ve seen this shoot a bunch now, but this time it was featured on one of the greatest wedding blogs everrr, Style Me Pretty- check it out to see the full feature and the fabulous florals by Daniela Faget. We were so excited to see so many great shots of our paper goodies and our name listed in the vendors list at the end.

Thank you, Style Me Pretty, for the feature!! …and Justin & Mary Marantz for including us in your shoot!

Earlier this year I had the privilege of participating in Justin & Mary’s “Spread The Love” tour by creating all of the paper goodies for their “Water For Elephants”, Seattle stop. If you don’t know them…Justin & Mary are two of the top wedding photographers in the country right now! Here’s a little article about them on Style Me Pretty.

I posted a few times about the shoot awhile back, so check those out for some photos. The paper goods, signs, bunting, etc were all designed & made by us! Also, Justin & Mary posted about it too; so I was super excited to see me (Lifework Media) in their list of participating vendors! w00hoo!

Just received a CD in the mail not too long ago with all of the pictures this amazing photography duo took from the shoot. Here are a few pictures from the set:

Also, I found my goodies displayed in a few other places on the internet. They are all over one of my favorite sites online (awesome!!), and then on a few photography blogs like this one.

I had a wonderful time participating in this shoot…and since then I’ve made gorgeous paper goodies for a few other photo shoots. One was for a WPPI training shoot & another was for a magazine (can’t say which!) that will be hitting newsstands in January. Excitement!

Our yummy letterpress stationery shop is now open online! Go check it out!

I’m so excited to introduce this line to you and so excited about the fact that we are able to provide “customizable” details. Basically every card you see is able to be changed and printed in any colors you want. Not to mention, we have delicious envelope liner patterns for you to pick and choose from to match (or contrast!) with your cards. Drool!

Just for the record, we are currently working on a ton of new cards & other goodies (think calendars, note pads, coasters, and more) to add to our line.

I can’t stand it. I’m so excited but it isn’t the right time to make the big announcement. No…it’s not a puppy. And no…we’re not pregnant. This is even better (I think)…but, alas, I can’t divulge because it’s not ready yet!

So, in the meantime, I’m providing you with a few pictures of some stationery I designed and letterpress printed. At least it gets a little bit off my chest, gives you a little taste of the goodness that is letterpress, and holds me over for another week or so. Ughhh..why do I do this to myself?

That is all. Check back in…say….oh a week or so when I can finally explode with giddy happiness over my newest and latest venture.

So my hubs today asked me how long it has been since I wrote on the bloggity after suggesting it has been awhile….and I was all “phft…not that long.”

But inside I knew.

I knew the truth was something I’d buried deep (ok, maybe not really)…as I promised myself I would never go this long without writing and I’ve been continually putting people off who have been asking to see my recent work. Eek!

The good news is I’ve been SO busy (yay!) but the blog has fallen off the edge of the earth. The bad news is I have SO many wonderful designs & goodies I’ve completed in the last few months, but literally no time to take pictures and post.

Anyway, in keeping with that…I’ve already taken up too much valuable time as I am desperately trying to assemble 100 invitations for a last-minute client who had 4 weeks for design. Not to mention, my puppies are scared of the thunder that is booming outside and jumping into my lap for comfort. It’s a beautiful thing, trying to glue & tape with a pup in my lap.

To satisfy your fancy, just wanted to post a little sneak peek of the gorgeous teal envelopes & custom patterned liners I’m assembling for this current invitation suite. My client, Joy, wanted an art deco/art nouveau inspired invitation set with all the bells and whistles- custom envelope liners, 3 color letterpress printing, various patterned backings on each of the pieces, custom postage stamps, rounded corners…the list goes on…and the invites are fabulous!

Here is a picture of the envelope & the custom liner I created that we’ll be using for Joy’s invitations. The colors: teal & chartreuse

Folks- I apologize for my severe lack of regular posts to the blog! I’m horrible, I know! I don’t know what has gotten into me other than being incredibly busy with fun projects and just not having enough hours in the day! Plus, not to mention…on a darker note- my dad- a heart surgeon himself- had a heart attack this Wednesday night…and I flew back to my hometown to be with him. All is well and he’ll be fine!!! Yay!!! But I suppose that’s not helping on the blogging front. Here’s an update!

On Wednesday I was able to participate in the setup and styling of a mock wedding for the amazing Share the Love and Walk Through a Wedding tour by Justin & Mary. I got a glimpse from behind the scenes, rather than just handing my paper designs off to someone else to setup. And what do you know?…I loved being a part of the excitement! Styling = fun. Who knew!? :)

The setup was fab, the flowers were gorgeous, and of course the venue (Sodo Park) is amazing! Sodo is a huge HUGE raw space with amazing windows, super incredibly high ceilings, and awesome rustic wood, beams, & paint. I considered this venue for my wedding a couple years back. LOVED it, but we ended up deciding we wanted a smaller space since we were inviting a small number of guests- no way we could have filled it!

On that point…the craziest part of setting up Walk Through a Wedding was realizing how big the space was compared to the sets we had staged. I couldn’t get over how tiny & unimpressive our sets looked, even though they were fabulous! What the heck? But really, it’s all in the photography & how all of the details are captured…which leads me to my next point…

We were featured on Justin & Mary’s blog where they posted a sneak peek of the shoot for all to see (scroll down a bit on their page)! Enjoy! All the paper goodies & bunting you see (Kisses 5 cents) were my designs in case you care. :) The whole thing turned out soo swoon worthy and gorgeous. Love!

Just got a request yesterday to design paper goods and accessories for the Spread the Love photography & wedding industry workshop tour, making a pit stop in Seattle. The best part is the theme, based on the book & movie Water for Elephants. Can I say yum!? Yes please!

The photographers have a fab…and I mean FAB website. Not to mention, I love how in all of my correspondence I am seeing “Yay” and “So excited!” left and right. Makes me feel good to realize I am not the only one to use ecstatic, over-the-top verbage! Hey, we love what we do! Sha-zam.

We’re talking about dramatic, gritty, vintage circus-inspired goods & colors. Here’s the inspiration board we were given to work with and the photog’s blog post about the theme.

Catch is, the event is next week and I have to come up with all kinds of goodies for it…on a really tight time-line!

Luckily, I’m collaborating with the fabulous Daniela of Bella Signature Design on this event and on a different circus-themed event in July, so I’ll be using a lot of the same details and designs we’ve already created, with a wee bit of tweaking.

Did I mention you should sign up for the workshop? Well, here goes: you should sign up for the workshop! “Walk Through A Wedding” spots are limited to 2o photographers per event, and the “Spread the Love” workshop is for any and all wedding industry professionals or business owners. In fact, I would love to attend. Gotta make that happen. and go.

Remember this big, old, honkin’ 100 yr. old thing I wrote about back in October?

Well…we’ve been printing on it a bunch…and I felt it was time for an update to my loyal readers.

Our most recent print job was printed on 100% cotton paper from Crane. It is one of the most luxurious, softest, most gorgeoouus gorgeous papers I’ve ever worked with. So obsessed. Really, you can’t help but touch and feel the paper…not to mention…once it is letterpressed you REALLY can’t help it because it leaves such a rich, deep impression from the letterpressing process. Swoon!

I suppose it’s time to show you a few pictures from our latest print job + a bit of description on the process.

1) For each color, we had a photopolymer plate made. You can see what one looks like below.

Everything is cleaned off, then the second ink color is applied to the press & the paper pieces are put back in to add the 2nd color to them. Same goes for the third color.

One of the hardest parts of the whole process is figuring out how much padding to add behind the paper so that when the plate hits the paper it pushes in…but not too much and not too little. Too much and the paper cracks. Too little and you can’t tell it’s indented.

Color differences, flaws, & other variations are part of the process of hand-made goods, and add to the appeal of letterpress.

Here’s an image of the layout of a completed invitation page. We’re cutting these ones after, but you can cut before & then print.

Image: Lifework

Here’s a closeup of the invitation, so you can see the indentation and the reason letterpress is highly sought after!!! GORGE no!? You can see a bigger version if you click on the picture.

Image: Lifework

I plan to post pictures of the fully assembled invitations once they are completed, but I seem to always promise more to come soon…and so far I haven’t followed through very well! I’m workin’ on it.

Now you see why letterpress everything is my new favorite obsession. I hope many of my future clients opt to go for letterpress printing instead of digital!

One of my current invitation clients is a super artsy, creative couple planning a wedding inspired by South Pacific, theater, and vintage Hawaii. SO FUN! Their colors are a variety of lavenders, corals, pinks, creams, and greens….very tropical.

We came up with the idea of a movie poster-inspired invitation with a vintage postcard, South Pacific-ish artwork, and a vintage map. All the pieces will be enclosed in a gorgeous light pink fold out and a lavender envelope with coral hand-calligraphy on the front. Not to mention…the full suite will incorporate lace, flowers, and ribbons as well.

Here are some mock-ups of this fun, whimsical invitation. Names, addresses, etc have been changed.

Pictures of the real thing will be posted first thing next week. This weekend is booked with printing, cutting, assembling, tying ribbons, and stuffing envelopes. Lots to do!

Here you will find we focus on all things design. In addition to showcasing our own work (invitations, graphic design, and videography) our goal is to bring you the best ideas & inspirations on all the most fabulous, creative, and beautiful things we can find. Hopefully you will walk away with an idea of something you must have!

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